The first meeting between Shai Lahav and Oren Barzilai did not create sparks and did not even generate chemistry between the two, but later fate intervein and their paths crossed and gave birth to the debut album of "Mofa Haarnavot Shel Dr. Kasper" which bears the band's name.
Shai youth band in Tiberias just disbanded and he decided to look for his future in the big city of Tel Aviv, he did not know exactly which direction to go because he wanted to continue his musical career but also wanted to study film. He began his studies and shared a Tel Aviv apartment with Ravit Ferrara, host of the mythological youth TV Series "Tosses". Ravit exposed him to the world of electronic rock with "EMF" and "Happy Mondays" tapes. He started playing with music and created sketches on an Atari 1024 computer with Q-Base software.
With the help of Ravit, he had the opportunity to record a song called "Dripping and Melting" for a collection of local indie music. In order to record the role of the guitars he published an ad in the newspaper "Ha'ir" and the person who answered it was a young high school student named Oren Barzilai. The two met and recorded the guitars together. But a minute after Oren closed the door behind him, Shay deleted all the recordings and began recreating everything from guitar samples. When Oren found out he was very offended and the two did not stay in touch.
Fate wanted it or rather, Ravit came into the picture again and landed an opportunity for Shai and this time a performance at the "Second Aliyah" club. Shai, who, apart from sketches on the computer, had nothing tangible, came across Oren by chance at a record store in Shenkin st. Since he was the only guitarist Shai knew, he offered to join the show. Shai on the computer and vocals and Oren on the guitars, the two started working on the show. Instead of going to school, Oren would come to Shai every morning and the two would record a sketch of a different song every day. After a week they already had all the sketches that would become the band's debut album.
In order to perform, the two needed a name and they chose "Dr. Kasper's Rabbit Show" when we were young and danced to the sounds of "you do not understand" we always wondered what the name means. So here is the meaning according to Shai:
"Because it was supposed to be a show, so we knew the band's name should include the word 'show.' Oren had a sweet rabbit so we added the word 'rabbits.', And 'Kasper' - because Oren just loved Casper the ghost. "That's how the name 'Dr. Kasper's Rabbit Show' was born, with no hidden meaning. We wanted a long name to weigh 'The Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club' of the Beatles."
(Photo: Koko)
The two performed at the "Second Aliyah" club and from there tried to evolve. Since they only had 7 songs they performed a kind of combined show, in the first part they would perform all the songs, go out for a break where Shai performed with a few jokes and stories, and in the second part go up again to perform the same songs. The two said that because the shows were so intimate, at the end of each show the audience would sit down and talk to them and give a critique of what needs to change and improve. At first only friends and family would come and slowly everyone invited their friends and the audience grew from 50 people show to 200 people show.
For the third performance of the two, Dudi Levy, who then starred in the band "Marginal Youth", came and at the end of the show, he approached them and said "you are going to be big", the two, of course, did not understand what he was talking about. For the next show, Levy brought with him Ronen Ben Tal from DB Productions and the two told Shai and Oren that if they want to work with them, they must form a band. In one of the interviews, Shai said that for them it was a big disappointment. He generally saw his musical future as creating electronic music with synthesizers, computers, beats, and samples and not a rock band. But of course, he did not want to refuse the offer and the two added Itzik Reisenberg on bass and drummer Zvika Cohen and within six months the band was officially formed.
(Photo: Hed-Artzi)
In preparation for the recording of the album, Ronen and Levy brought the new band into the studio and asked them to record all the sketches they have, live. Out of them, they will bring out the best demos in order to decide on the material they will be working on in the album. The band took the opportunity to duplicate the tape with the help of Oren's double-cast tape. They distributed all the recordings in their shows and when they came to perform at the Israeli Rock Hall of Fame at that time, the "Roxanne" club, there were about 2000 people who shouted all the band songs without the band having a single song on the radio.
Immediately afterward they were signed to the record company "Hed-Artzi" and entered the studio to work on the debut album. Since they were already polished from the shows they knew exactly what and how to record and the recordings of the album ended after only one month. The album, which includes 13 songs, most of which were written and composed by Oren and Shai, with the production of Dudi Levy, was released on March 14, 1993.
The first single from the album was "In a Red Dress", a cover of a song by the Nahal Band from the 1960s. Oren said that the song was created thanks to his brother Alon, who would come to the shows and ask the band to perform the song. The part of "You Do Not Understand" in the song was created since they did not know the rest of the songs and had to come up with something. As you know, the song exploded on the airwaves in Israel and together with the music video broadcast on Channel 22 drove the whole country crazy. For tremendous success.
The album was an insane success, it received rave reviews and was also loved by the youth who at the time were looking for something local, alongside the grunge scene that came from overseas...
Listen to the album on Spotify, Apple Music